Forget birds, blossoms and longer days, perhaps the most significant harbinger of spring is the annual arrival of Girl Scout cookies.

Since 1922, the Girls Scouts of The United States America have been distributing cookies in some way or form.

Cherie Ellis, who has worked with Lancaster’s Girl Scouts for 15 years, is community development manager for Girl Scouts of South Carolina in Lancaster County. She says preliminary numbers from cookie presales are already 370 boxes more than last year.

Peddlers, pawnbrokers and poker machines will all be up for discussion as Lancaster County Council considers a trio of different ordinances at its meeting Monday, Feb. 25.

As part of its agenda, council will vote on final reading of an ordinance to revise the county’s code, allowing council to set license fees for people classified as peddlers and hawkers. If approved, council would then have the power to establish a fee as part of its fiscal year 2013-14 budget.

Valentine’s Day may be a day dedicated to love, but Lancaster County School District dedicated the entire month of February to a much more serious subject – teen dating violence.

Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month is a project of the school district’s federal STEP Grant, a month-long effort made official with local proclamations by Lancaster City Council, Lancaster County Council and statewide by Gov. Nikki Haley.

The word “sludge” may evoke many images, from broken pipes to soupy sewer drains, though the image of a field covered in the stuff may not immediately come to mind.

But that’s exactly the aim of a permit up for reissuing, which would allow the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities Department to continue applying treated wastewater sludge to farm properties in Lancaster, York, Chester and Fairfield counties.

LAURENS – It wasn’t a good day on Saturday, Feb. 16 for the Lancaster Bruins as they were shutout at the Class AAAA Upper State championship tournament by not qualifying anyone for this weekend’s individual state tournament at the Anderson Civic Center.